by A. C. Arthur
“I joined the club. It took all of my savings and I had to borrow a little but I was able to get a yearly membership. I put my name on the list and described you to a tee in the hopes that you would show up on my profile as a suggested connection. But you never did.” Noble shook his head as he smiled.
Jerald knew that smile. Or at least he thought he had. He thought he’d known this guy. But now as he stared at him, at the same six foot tall man with curly hair that he’d watched come and go in his office for the last three years, Jerald saw someone different.
He threw back his head and laughed, sobering only when Bonner stepped a couple feet away from Jerald.
“Keep it still, SEAL,” Noble told him, leaning in a little so that he could point the gun closer to Hailey.
She wasn’t crying, Jerald noticed. Not one tear had been shed along the smooth skin of her face, but her eyes showed her fear and that pissed Jerald off even more.
“You stalked me?” Jerald asked. “You’re the one that broke into my house and stole those videos and you threw that brick at me. Why Noble? Why are you doing all this? What do you hope to accomplish?”
“Accomplish?” Noble asked, his gaze returning to Jerald. “Will you give that work shit a rest for a minute, babe. It’s not about accomplishing anything. It’s about claiming you. About finally having you the way I’ve wanted you for so long.”
“And what way is that?” Jerald asked incredulously.
“Oooh, I see,” Noble said drawing out the ‘o’ sound and shaking his head. “You want to act like you’re in denial. Okay, well I knew that might happen. But that’s because she’s a distraction. Once I get rid of her…”
Jerald interrupted him. “You threatened her grandmother didn’t you? Or you tried. You wanted to scare her so she would leave L.A. You were trying to take her away from me,” Jerald said realization hitting him like a heated ball in the pit of his stomach.
It had been Noble all along.
“She’s a stupid, young, bitch! She has no idea what she needs to get on with her life, let alone what you need in yours. So yes! I’ve been trying to make you both see how wrong you are for each other. Now, I’ve just got to put a stop to this. I’m sick of waiting.”
Noble was sick of waiting…for him. Jerald tried like hell to wrap his mind around this entire situation. Noble had wanted to be with him, romantically? In all these years when Jerald was avoiding a committed relationship with any woman, he’d never in his wildest dreams considered a man might be interested in him.
“You’re a fucking lunatic!” Jerald shouted finally.
Noble smiled. “I’m the lunatic with a gun.”
Jerald didn’t think. He didn’t consider, he didn’t pause. He just ran, a guttural yell tearing from his lungs and echoing in the air as he slammed into Noble at the waist. The force of the hit knocked the air out of Noble as he fell to the ground with a grunt, the gun he was holding flipping out of his hand.
Rearing back Jerald punched Noble in the face. When the bastard only laughed, he punched him again and again. Harder and harder until his knuckles stung and his breaths came in heavy pants.
In his mind all he could see was Hailey with blood on her forehead the day that brick was thrown, Hailey lying on the bed with an oxygen mask on her face, Hailey lying on that ground bound and gagged. His mind screamed as rage tore through his body and his fists moved faster. Noble’s laughing had stopped. He’d never bothered to swing back or try to protect himself in any way, but Jerald didn’t give a damn he simply kept hitting him, the way he’d also wanted to hit Mendoza and anybody else that dared to hurt Hailey.
On the next swing his arms were pulled back until he howled, his body being dragged back across the ground.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jerald yelled.
“I’m stopping you from being arrested for murder,” Bonner stated calmly. The big guy glanced over at Noble who lay bleeding on the ground, still breathing, but barely.
“While there’s no doubt the bastard deserves a good ass kicking, you shouldn’t be jailed because of his stupidity. Now go tend to your woman. She looks like she needs you right now.”
Bonner had turned away then, as if Jerald and Hailey weren’t even there. After dragging Noble over to the SUV he opened a door and yanked Noble’s arm to cuff it to the steering wheel. Jerald watched him march into the house at that point. Sirens sounded in the distance as Jerald came to a stand and ran over to where Hailey was lying on the ground. He fell to his knees in front of her, taking the tape from her mouth gently.
“Oh my god! How did you know I was here? How did you know to come and get me?” she asked, throwing her arms around his neck the moment he’d untied the rope at her hands.
Jerald hugged her to him, holding her tight, his eyes closed as he rocked her.
“I told you I wanted to help you,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be there for you, Hailey. Always.”
“Oh Jerald,” she sighed in his arms. “I’m so glad you came. So glad you’re here with me.”
“I won’t leave you again,” he whispered into her hair. “I promise.”
#
“Is it over now?” Hailey asked when they were back in her hotel room.
She sat on the bed, falling back so that she could stare up at the ceiling.
“Noble’s in jail for kidnapping you and the Mendoza girls and for killing Mandi. The detective that came to see me earlier today, searched his apartment while Noble was at the Mendoza place losing the last of his mind with us. They found the murder weapon and his bloody clothes,” Jerald said.
He sat on the bed too, leaning over to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Wow, I can’t believe all of this has happened. It’s like a Jennifer Lopez movie,” she said trying to keep it light, trying desperately not to think that just a day ago she’d been choked until she was unconscious and today she’d been tied up and held at gunpoint.
“I’m sorry,” she heard Jerald say quietly.
“You’re sorry? What are you sorry for?”
He sat up then, rubbing his hands down his face. “Noble was on my watch. He was my employee and I had no clue that he was infatuated with me.”
“I’d say it was more like he was obsessed with you,” Hailey added. “Before you showed up he told me all the things he knew about you that I didn’t. All the reasons he was better for you than I was.”
“I had no idea he was watching me like that. None at all.”
“You had no idea he was watching you but you had no problem taping the women you slept with so that you could watch them,” she said without a second thought.
He turned immediately at her words, staring down at her. Hailey had considered being outraged by the fact that there were videos of her having sex. Noble had told her about them before Jerald arrived. Jerald had never mentioned them to her and that pissed her off. Only, after everything had happened, she just couldn’t bring herself to be angry about it now. She was simply grateful to be alive.
“I never meant for anyone to see those. There was only one copy and I never would have done anything with them besides keep them for my own personal use,” he told her.
“And what’s that, Jerald? Why do you need to sleep with women who don’t give a damn about you and then tape them and watch the interlude over and over again? What could you possibly gain from such a sordid and lonely hobby as that?”
She’d turned her head so she could see him, as she waited for his reply. Jerald Carrington had it all—he was gorgeous, rich, successful, and popular. He could have any and everything in this world that he wanted and yet each time she looked into his eyes she could feel her heart breaking for him, for the sadness she always saw there.
“It’s just what I do,” he said turning away from her.
Hailey sat up. She moved to sit beside him, touching a finger to his chin and turning his face to her. “I would like a real answer, Jerald. After all that we’ve been through together, you owe me
that little bit of honesty.”
He looked at her for what seemed like endless moments and Hailey actually feared that he wouldn’t respond, that he would continue to hold himself away from her. It was a thought she’d had often, one she knew she could never live with.
“When I was nineteen I was in a skiing accident,” he said slowly. “There was a spinal injury that left me temporarily paralyzed.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It also left me temporarily impotent.”
Hailey’s hand dropped from his face.
Jerald nodded as if he’d known saying that would cause some type of reaction from her.
“For almost a year I laid in a bed wondering not just if I’d walk normal again, but if I’d ever get an erection. If I would be able to be with a female again, to please her and myself. It was torture,” he said solemnly.
“But it did get better and I moved on. Only that fear never subsided. There was always the ‘what if’. ‘What if I was with a woman and I couldn’t get it up?’ ‘What if I did get it up and then it just stopped?’”
“Oh Jerald,” she finally sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head immediately. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Pity is not what I need. I never needed that.”
She touched his knee then, feeling as if she had to reach out to him in some way.
“A couple times a year I would hire professional escorts. We would spend a few nights here and there together and that would be it. When I found out about the club I figured this was a more convenient way to fulfil my needs. I joined and I hired the women of my choice. I slept with them and I taped them. At first it was a way of reminding myself that I’d healed. With each woman that I pleased I considered myself whole. But it was all a lie. I knew that when I left Turks and Caicos. None of those interludes compared to when I was with you.”
Hailey hadn’t cried when Mendoza had choked her and she hadn’t cried when Noble had pointed a gun at her, but now, right at this moment she could feel tears welling in her eyes.
“Nothing that I’d ever experienced could compare to when I was with you either,” she confided in him. “It was as if you were my first and there’s a part of me that knows there’ll never be anyone like you in my life again.”
Jerald looked to her as if he hadn’t believed her words, but he wanted to.
“I’m flawed,” he told her. “I’ve always known that and I’ve always been able to accept that. But with you, for you, Hailey, I want to be more, to be better.”
She smiled, bringing her hands up to cup his face. “We’re better together, Jerald. I think that’s why we were so connected to each other. Even when I tried to walk away I always ended up in your arms again. Like fate,” she told him.
Like he was the one for her and had been all along, just as she’d told Pops in her dream.
“I want you Jerald Carrington, flaws and all. I want you. Over and over again.”
Acting on instinct alone Hailey leaned in to kiss him, whispering how much she wanted him between stroking her tongue over his lips and slanting her mouth over his so she could take the kiss deeper. It was the first time she’d kissed him, the first time she’d been the one to initiate sex between them, the first time she admitted to herself that she’d fallen in love with this man.
“Oh Hailey, you have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that,” he replied, turning and pulling her onto his lap, his hands immediately going to the tie-up in the front of her shirt.
She pulled back and let him lift the shirt over her head. “I’ve never felt like this before,” she told him. “Never needed to be touched and taken by someone as desperately as when I’m with you.”
Jerald tossed the shirt to the floor and yanked at her bra until her breasts were free. He leaned in instantly, licking along each mound. “Whenever I close my eyes I can feel how soft your breasts are against my face, how sweet the skin is right here,” he said licking along the inside of her right breast. “And here,” he whispered as his tongue slid along the inside of her left one.
Hailey held his head right there, loving how his mouth felt on her breasts. She lifted one when he’d taken the nipple into his mouth, holding it up to him as if she were feeding him, loving the deep, almost painful sting, of his suckling.
“Yes!” she screamed arching in his arms.
She needed him right now!
Her fingers were quick working over the buttons of his dress shirt. He’d lost the tie as they’d sat in the police station waiting to give their statements. She pushed the shirt off his shoulders and down his arms, then instantly began pulling the undershirt he wore from his pants.
“Stop!” Jerald said adamantly, grabbing her wrists.
The intensity of the word compounded by how tightly he was holding her had worried Hailey and her eyes immediately opened so she could look at him.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Leave it on,” he told her, then proceeding to unbutton her pants.
Hailey thought back to each time they’d made love and remembered that Jerald had never been totally naked.
“I want it off,” she said grabbing his wrists so that he could not continue to remove her pants.
“It’s not a big deal, Hailey,” he told her, staring for a few seconds as if his look alone would change her mind.
Hailey scooted off his lap. She toed off her shoes and pushed her pants and panties down and off her legs. Standing before him she was totally naked and horny as hell. But she wasn’t playing with Jerald Carrington, not anymore. They’d come too far and gone through too much for him to not give her one hundred percent.
“I want you naked, just as I am,” she told him.
“Hailey,” he said in a low voice.
“No negotiation. Naked.”
His dick was so hard, she could see it tenting his pants and her mouth watered. She couldn’t wait to get her hands on him. She loved to feel him in her hands and inside her pussy. But no, she would not give in this time.
“Naked or go,” she told him folding her arms over her chest.
“I thought you wanted me,” he said coming to a stand.
Hailey had no idea when this woman had arrived to take over her mind and her body but she was here and there was no holding her back. She lifted a leg to rest her foot on the bed, then she pressed two fingers between her legs, circling them over her clit then back to sink into her dripping pussy. She pumped herself quickly until the sound of her arousal echoed throughout the room.
“I do,” she whispered. “Can’t you hear it?”
A muscle in his jaw twitched.
“All you have to do is get naked and you can have it, baby. You can have it all,” she told him.
Jerald lowered his head. “Hailey, you don’t understand.”
“Make me understand,” she said pulling her hands free and touching those two fingers to his lips.
He licked her fingers, lapping at them as if he were dying of thirst. Then he ripped his shirt off, like literally pulled it until it stretched and tore from his body. He grabbed her then, turning her and pushing her onto the bed, lifting her legs up until her ankles rested on his shoulders.
He had his pants unbuckled and down at his ankles in seconds, his thick cock spearing into her before she could murmur his name. Hailey gasped and moaned, she loved how he completely filled her, his thickness stretching her wide and pressing deep inside of her.
“Jerald!” she screamed his name when he pulled out and thrust back in. “Yes!”
He pounded into her mercilessly, until her breasts bounced and slapped against her torso, her head thrashing on the bed. He kept her legs up high, holding her at the hips and making sure she received every long and delicious inch of him.
“Is that what you wanted?” he asked her. “You wanted me to have this pussy didn’t you?”
“Yes! Yes, baby!” she cried.
“But you tried to take it from me. You tried to tease me with it.”
“Oh no
! It’s yours Jerald. It’s all yours!”
“Yeah!” he groaned, pumping her from a side angle, then jamming into her straight back and forth until her legs trembled, her fingers pulling the sheets from the bed.
“Jerald!”
“Hailey!”
They both screamed as their release took hold, wrapping around them and holding their bodies tight during what felt like a torrential storm ripping through her body.
After a few seconds he leaned forward, letting her legs down gently, before laying on top of her. The second he did Hailey wrapped her arms around him, flattening her hands over his strong back and squeezing him tight. “I…” she began to say but paused.
She moved quickly, pushing him to the side so that she could rise up on her knees. She pressed against his shoulders until he lay on his stomach with no resistance from him. That’s when she saw it, the scar stretching up and down his back. With shaking fingers Hailey touched him there, felt the bubbled skin beneath her fingers and ached for him all over again.
“You didn’t want me to see your scar,” she said softly.
“I said it’s not a big deal.”
“It is,” she told him before leaning in to touch her lips lightly to the top of the scar. “It’s a big deal because it’s a part of you.” She dropped tiny kisses down the length of his spine. “It’s a part of you that I’ve fallen in love with.”
Jerald moved then, turning over onto his back and pulling her so that she straddled him. He was hard again and thrust deep into her, holding her hips tightly. Hailey fell forward onto his chest, rotating her hips and riding him until another blissful release.
That’s how their night proceeded. Sex, shower, a pizza Jerald ordered somewhere around midnight, more sex and finally dropping off into the deepest, most pleasurable sleep she’d ever had.
In the morning Jerald was gone.
She found a note on the bathroom mirror with instructions for her to come to Carrington Enterprises and meet with someone in Human Resources to find out where she would be working. He also gave her the number to the persons that dealt with the medical insurance and the tuition reimbursement office.
